Genesis 18: 16–17 | Abraham's Plea for Sodom: 10 Righteous Could Have Saved the Cities
Memory Verse
And the highborn men rose up from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them. And the LORD said, “Will I cover from Abraham what I am doing ...” Genesis 18:16–17.
The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was great because of their wickedness. The entire valley followed in fornication and went after strange flesh (Jude 7). Now the LORD was coming to Sodom to bring judgment for their works (Genesis 18:21).
The LORD chose to share what He was about to do with Abraham because He had chosen Abraham and his seed to guard the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice (Genesis 18:18–19). The two men with the LORD went on their way to Sodom, while the LORD remained to speak with Abraham.
After Abraham heard what the LORD planned to do, he asked whether He would destroy the righteous with the wicked (Genesis 18:23). Starting with fifty men and ending with only ten, the LORD responded that if He found ten righteous men in the valley of Sodom and Gomorrah, He would not destroy the valley (Genesis 18:31).
It would have taken only ten righteous men in all the valley of Sodom and Gomorrah to save it from the destruction that was about to come upon it for its wicked deeds and sexual perversions. Sodom, Gomorra, and all the cities of the valley are about to be destroyed as an example to all those who live ungodly (2 Peter 2:6).